Sound It Out

Sound It Out is the name of the last independent record shop in Teesside, and this dinky, bittersweet film offers a profile of its chipper staff and endearingly oddball clientele. Instead of hectoring us with alarmist stats about the inexorable decline of this connoisseur industry, director Jeanie Finlay allows her camera to drink up the dusty corners of the shop while occasionally following a (male) customer home to peruse his space-defying collection. Her rambling, funny and empathetic film is about infatuation, but she’s also interested in examining the diversity of these diehard vinyl aficionados: one Status Quo obsessive is hatching plans to be buried with his collection, one young metal fan spent three hours etching ‘Pisschrist’ on the back of a shirt, while one old fella wanders in from the pub to buy some Dire Straits and Meatloaf.